Retirement Income Product Owner

Own retirement income product strategy within VWS, bridging the gap between investment expertise and business accountability and being a strategic collaborator to all parts of the product ecosystem. 

 
Job Description 

Join the team shaping the investment offerings for America’s largest DC asset manager. In this senior role, you will collaborate across investments, client teams, and functional partners to shape strategy for retirement income products—bringing a specialized blend of client, business, and investment acumen to a high-impact, fast-evolving product lineup. 

The Vanguard Workplace Solutions (VWS) mission is to bring investment success to millions of workers who participate in their employer-sponsored retirement plans. The Strategy, Client Offer, Product & Enablement (SCOPE) subdivision aligns business strategy, investment products, retirement consulting, and enablement functions to help ensure the right products and services are getting to the plan sponsors, participants, and consultants that can benefit from them.  

The Investment Product Strategy team supports these goals by owning the comprehensive investment product strategy: driving participant financial success by evolving the VWS investment product line-up and accelerating growth of investment products in partnership with distribution teams.  

This open position is one of three senior specialists on the VWS Investment Product Strategy team, each with end-to-end ownership of a defined product category. The team also includes our Product Insights sub-team for cross-category strategy and support. This open position would be a Category Owner with a focus on retirement income products, inclusive of: 

• Owner of VWS’s holistic retirement income offer 

• Deep expert/accountability for insurance related products including Target Retirement Lifetime Income Trust series, Stable Value, and Hueler Income Solutions 

• Secondary focus on the investment methodology supporting recordkeeping and advice services  

Core Responsibilities 

1. Acts as an investment expert both internally and externally in the industry. Provides investment support and guidance to relationship management and sales teams; is regularly called upon to participate in meetings with Vanguard's largest and most strategic clients. Acts as a Vanguard ambassador through media interviews and industry events when there is a need for an expert on the holistic VWS retirement income offer including investments and recordkeeping/participant considerations. 

2. Leads analyses of investment product issues confronting Vanguard's product line-up. Leverages and manages cross-functional teams as required, inclusive of investments, product, sales, relationship management, distribution enablement, marketing, legal, operations, technology, and risk. Prepares and presents strategic analysis and recommendations to senior management at various forums. 

3. Develops and maintains key internal stakeholder relationships across the organization. Be the primary business point of contact for investment partners for covered products (e.g. PRD, IMG,ISG). Collaborate with enterprise counterparts on coordinated retirement income approach. 

4. Monitors health of category, competitive positioning, and industry trends to proactively identify opportunities for growth and retention, including ideas for new products or structural changes to existing products.  

5. Attends and presents at industry conferences and client specific events related to the product category of focus. Acts as a Vanguard spokesperson for the product category with the press and industry liaisons. 

6. Provides thought leadership in support of the Vanguard product lineup. 

7. Drives the creation of dynamic content and technical marketing used to position Vanguard investment products and to respond to investor queries. Contributes to new product launches, develops go-to market strategies, and supports execution as needed. 

8. Contributes to new product launches. Participates in internal training and communications including training on launches and changes to existing products. Ensures coordination and consistency of product-related marketing initiatives and external communications across divisions. 

9. Manage third-party relationships with TIAA, Micruity, and Hueler to ensure effective decision-making and product accountability for covered products.  

Qualifications 

• Undergraduate degree or equivalent combination of training and experience. Graduate degree preferred. CFA preferred. 

• Ten years related work experience, including five years' experience in product management and investment analysis/strategy. 

• This job requires a regulatory license and/or registration (e.g. FINRA, state, SFC). These will be determined by Compliance based on role-specific duties.